The present invention relates to drug delivery devices, more particular to an anesthetic delivery tool for use in connection in performing both transmucosal absorption applications and subdermal injections of anesthetic agents.
It is generally believed and rarely argued against the consensus that pain is to avoided or at least minimized. Therefore, the application of various types of anesthetic agents to suffering patients has not only been welcomed by patients but by physicians and dentist as well. It is not generally known that physicians and dentist themselves also may suffer serious psychological deleterious effects from inflicting the inevitable pain associated with the practice of treating a suffering patient. In particular, it is has been argued that the reason why dentist suffer from unusually high suicide rates is because dentist are exposed to an environment of inflicting great pain on others. Therefore, the on-going struggle to find a means for minimizing or to eliminate pain reaches well beyond the usefulness in minimizing the pain in patients but also reaches the usefulness in minimizing the deleterious psychological effects on physicians and dentist. Presently local anesthetic delivery is achieved by transmucosal absorption of a topical anesthetic agent for topical anesthesia. This is then followed by a direct field or a nerve block to the nerves at the desired work areas desired to be anesthetized. However, as the needle penetrates the deeper layers of muscle and tissue, pain is still experienced by the patient.
A wide variety of anesthetic delivery tools is currently available on the commercial market and an even larger number of these types of devices are known in the art of anesthetic delivery tols, for example, the drug delivery device disclosed by Gerstel and Place in U.S. Pat. No. 3,964,482; the dispensing device for a liquid medicament disclosed by Thoma and Krotlinger in U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,688; the drug delivery device disclosed by Panoz in U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,617; the subdermal delivery device disclosed by Kriesel et all in U.S. Pat. No. 5,693,018; the intradermal drug delivery device and method for intradermal delivery of drugs disclosed by Gross and Kelly in U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,991; and the fluid delivery device with collapsible needle cover disclosed by Kriesel and Thompson in U.S. Pat. No. 6,126,637.
While all of the above-described devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not describe an anesthetic delivery tool having a housing unit with a hollow central cavity, a slip plate containing a plurality of needles and a push plate, wherein the slip plate is slidably attached within the hollow central cavity. These elements would specifically match the user""s particular individual needs of making it possible to have a front-end cavity containing a gel topical anesthetic agent for use in transmucosal absorption applications, as well as, a rear-end cavity containing a liquid anesthetic agent for use in subdermal injections of the liquid anesthetic agent. The above-described patents make no provision for a device capable of applying anesthetic agents via transmucosal absorption applications followed by subdermal injections.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved anesthetic delivery tool having a housing unit with a hollow central cavity, a slip plate containing a plurality of needles and a push plate, wherein the slip plate is slidably attached within the hollow central cavity. In this respect, the anesthetic delivery tool according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of making it possible to have a front-end cavity containing a gel topical anesthetic agent for use in transmucosal absorption applications, as well as, a rear-end cavity containing a liquid anesthetic agent for use in subdermal injections of the liquid anesthetic agent.
The present device, according to the principles of the present invention, overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art by providing a new and improved anesthetic delivery tool and method of using the tool in transmucosal absorption applications of a gel topical anesthetic agent and in subdermal injections of a liquid anesthetic agent is disclosed. The anesthetic delivery tool comprises a housing unit having a hollow central cavity with a slip plate containing a plurality of needles directed towards the front end of the housing unit. The slip plate and the front portion of the hollow central cavity define a front-end cavity for affixing a therapeutically effective aliquot of gel topical anesthetic agent. The anesthetic delivery tool also comprises a thin membrane positioned directly behind the slip plane and a push plate positioned at the rear end of the housing unit. The push plate, the thin membrane and the rear portion of the hollow central cavity defining a rear-end cavity for affixing a therapeutically effective amount of liquid anesthetic agent.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known type anesthetic delivery tools now present in the prior art, the present invention provides an improved anesthetic delivery tool, which will be described subsequently in great detail, is to provide a new and improved anesthetic delivery tool which is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by the prior art, either alone or in any combination thereof.
To attain this, the present invention essentially comprises a housing unit having a hollow central cavity with a slip plate containing a plurality of needles directed towards the front end of the housing unit. The slip plate and the front portion of the hollow central cavity define a front-end cavity for affixing a therapeutically effective aliquot of gel topical anesthetic agent. The anesthetic delivery tool also comprises a thin membrane positioned directly behind the slip plane and a push plate positioned at the rear end of the housing unit. The push plate, the thin membrane and the rear portion of the hollow central cavity defining a rear-end cavity for affixing a therapeutically effective amount of liquid anesthetic agent.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution of the art may be better appreciated.
The invention may also include a gingival adhesive pad, a detachable film cover and a safety string. There are of course, additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims attached.
Numerous objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading of the following detailed description of presently preferred, but nonetheless illustrative, embodiments of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompany drawings. In this respect, before explaining the current embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based may readily be used as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved anesthetic delivery tool that has all the advantages of the prior art anesthetic delivery tool and none of the disadvantages.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved anesthetic delivery tool that may be easily and efficiently manufactured and marketed.
An even further object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved anesthetic delivery tool that has a low cost of manufacture with regard to both materials and labor, and which accordingly is then susceptible of low prices of sale to the consuming public, thereby making such multipurpose storage unit and system economically available to the buying public.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a new anesthetic delivery tool that provides in the apparatuses and methods of the prior art some of the advantages thererof, while simultaneously overcoming some of the disadvantages normally associated therewith.
Even still another object of the present invention is to provide a anesthetic delivery tool having a housing unit with a hollow central cavity, a slip plate containing a plurality of needles and a push plate, wherein the slip plate is slidably attached within the hollow central cavity. This makes it possible to have a front-end cavity containing a gel topical anesthetic agent for use in transmucosal absorption applications, as well as, a rear-end cavity containing a liquid anesthetic agent for use in subdermal injections of the liquid anesthetic agent.
Lastly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved method of using the present invention comprises obtaining, identifying, removing, adhering, aligning, allowing, positioning, exerting, removing, pulling, discarding.
Further, the purpose of the foregoing abstract is to enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, and especially the scientist, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application. The abstract is neither intended to define the invention of the application, which is measured by the claims, nor is it intended to be limiting as to the scope of the invention in any way.